Master of comeback, Clinton regains footing

Associated Press

Published Thursday, May 10, 2001

NEW YORK -- Bill Clinton, the master of the comeback, is rehabilitating his image yet again.

After a messy White House exit marked by uproars over pardons, gifts and pricey office space, the former president has focused on humanitarian issues in the past two months, taking his message across four continents to receptive and often adoring crowds.

''Basically he's decided to take things he knows work and adapt them to other countries,'' said Joe Lockhart, the former White House press secretary who is now among his few close advisers.

''Only two or three former presidents have had the platform to bring international focus to disaster relief, citizen service, economic empowerment and health care. And he still has a very strong following.''

Since leaving office, Clinton has helped found an organization of Americans who want to rebuild villages destroyed in January by an earthquake in India. Already, the group has raised $8 million. He also visited India this spring and plans to help launch the India Service Corps, modeled on the U.S. Peace Corps.

Recently he attended an AIDS summit in Africa and embarked on extended trips to Europe and China. He also started a Clinton Democracy Fellowship program, which brings South African students to the United States to learn how to run community service programs.

In remaking his image, he has employed strategies proven effective during his darkest days in office.

After appearing adrift for weeks without his presidential staff, Clinton has assembled a circle of advisers, including former chief of staff John Podesta, with whom he consults regularly.

In traveling the world, Clinton has largely succeeded in focusing news coverage on a few select causes. At home, he has made himself less accessible to the media. Reporters are excluded from his paid speaking engagements, and audience questions are typically pre-selected.

Nearly gone now are the tabloid headlines like ''Clinton Legacy: Wanna walk? Money talks'' that blared from newsstands throughout February.

Presidential scholar James Pfiffner, a professor of government and politics at George Mason University, said the 54-year-old Clinton should have no problem reshaping his image if he continues to pursue the service projects he has championed in recent weeks.

''One key thing is that he's relatively young as ex-presidents go,'' Pfiffner said. ''Nixon rehabilitated his image, or tried, by writing his books, conferring with world leaders and being a wise elder statesman. He came amazingly far.''

He added: ''The international arena, especially with Africa and AIDS and pressing problems in the developing world, seems like a natural place for Clinton to work on his image.''

Aides said Clinton's recent travel schedule is typical of the way he plans to spend much of his time. He plans to devote most of the rest to public appearances and his memoirs.

Despite embarrassing early setbacks on the lecture circuit -- Morgan-Stanley, for example, announced it regretted having him speak at a conference in Boca Raton, Fla. -- Clinton is in great demand as a speaker.

The Harry Walker Agency, which books Clinton's engagements, says it has assigned extra personnel to keep up with demand. Clinton has made dozens of appearances at a minimum of $100,000 each, with the fee typically higher overseas.

He is expected to earn about $1 million for appearances this month alone, which would go a long way toward paying his estimated $4 million in legal fees. Those costs continue to accumulate; a federal grand jury is investigating Clinton's presidential pardons.

Robert Barnett, Clinton's literary agent and lawyer, said the former president will sign a hefty memoir deal within the next few months. The contract seems likely to eclipse Hillary Rodham Clinton's $8 million book deal, which Barnett also helped arrange.

Aides said he has turned down tens of millions of dollars' worth of commercials and endorsement offers, and has declined offers to work in the media and in teaching.

Clinton has also kept his hand in politics. He stays in touch with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and other foreign leaders, including South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

With his wife in Washington as a senator and his daughter, Chelsea, away at Stanford University, Clinton's white house in suburban Westchester County is rarely inhabited by anyone except Clinton and his military valet, who cooks meals and tends to his clothing and household needs.

Clinton and his wife have had a mostly long-distance relationship since leaving the White House, though just this month they began making public appearances together again.

The controversy that marked his first weeks out of office isn't necessarily a bad thing, said Skip Rutherford, head of the foundation that is planning Clinton's presidential library in Little Rock, Ark.

''The more controversies there are and the more interesting a president is, the more exciting a library will be to tourists, historians, journalists and others,'' said Rutherford, who claims the foundation's $200 million fund-raising effort has continued unabated. ''Clinton will be one of the most studied presidents of all time.''